Here is a link to the Ken Robinson talk we viewed in class:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Let me know, in a paragraph or two, what you think of his talk.
Pick out one or two points, and compose a brief reaction (in a paragraph or two) as a comment to this post.
Thanks.
KK
Ken Robinson made several points in his discussion on Tedtalk. A key word that stuck out in my mind was unpredictability. No one knows exactly what is going to happen days, months, or even years from now. Education is the same. Although we know benefits for the now, who is to say they will always work in the future? With unpredictability comes preparedness. He stated, “ if your not prepared to be wrong, you will never grow up to be original.” Students are punished for being wrong or making a mistake when taking tests, writing reports, and reflecting on materials learned in class. “Mistakes are the worst thing you can make” but yet mistakes are the best learning experience. What does this say to students and their learning? DO NOT MAKE MISTAKES!
ReplyDeleteCreativity is a talent that everyone has. If it is not used, it seems to disappear. Ken made a great point when he said, “We don’t grow into creativity we grow out of it.” So many students lack creativity because they are constantly told what to do and as Ken said, “many highly talented people think they are not because they were taught to think that.” The task is to educate the whole child, not just half. Rethinking some of these issues would help to create a much more positive learning environment and success within the system all around.
One of the biggest points that I believe to be true is that all students are taught like they should be university professors. They are held at such high standards that if they cannot perform mathematics or certain science experiments than they will be seen as failures in life. There is no reason a child should be written off that early and labeled a failure for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, they are not seen as intellectuals. What people fail to realize is that many great inventors and inventions came from those seen as “unintelligent.”
ReplyDeleteAnother point that I found interesting, branching off of the previous idea, is that the subjects in school that are seen as most useful, are ones designed to send students on to higher education. In my experiences there are many schools that focus a great deal on their alternative education programs because they know the students have different abilities and many of them are not going to succeed in higher education. That is why it is important to introduce them to hands-on classes and activities that will fit more to their interest level. Of course the world needs doctors, lawyers, and teachers with college degrees, but the world also needs mechanics, plumbers, and bakers who may not have the same schooling, but still have the necessary education.
I think Ken Robinson made several great points in his Ted Talk. The first great point that he made was “Creativity is an important as literacy. “ I agree with Ken that creativity is so often pushed to the side in classrooms today, but still remains just as important. Students are not given the opportunities to express themselves in schools. Think about it, in several classrooms we tell the students the result we are looking for! Encouraging creativity in a variety of art forms is something that I hope to one day incorporate into my classroom weather it be through music, dance, visual arts, or other creative pieces.
ReplyDeleteThe second great point Ken makes in his talk is that, “We are all born artists.” As children we are all born with open and creative minds. Each child is unique, and views things through a different perspective. If we no longer allow students to be creative in the classroom then they are no longer artists. Think how boring our world would be if we did not have artists to invent new ideas, create entertainment, or freedom of expression. If we limit students from using creativity then we limit their opportunities for the future.
I found it interesting the comments he made about Jillian and her teachers thinking she had a learninging disability, when all she needed was to move around in order to think.
ReplyDeleteToday there are kids that are the same way, but yet we insist they remain seated for hours at a time. And the only reprieve they get is the few minutes per day when they get to come and sit at the rug or during recess.
The second point that I really liked was about children not being frightened about being wrong. I can see how our grading system eventually teaches children to be scared and in general feel bad when they make mistakes. We penalize them for giving us wrong answers. We should be making them learning experiences instead of slashing across the wrong answers with pen mark.
Ken Robinson is a very creative thinker and is very talented in presenting his ideas in ways that his audience is drawn in. I loved the story he told about the little girl that was seen as slow and when she was brought to the doctors, he said that she wasn't slow or had a disability, but she was just a dancer. I feel that this is a great point and I feel that our educational system doesn't see students as people or as different, but a product that should be all the same and with out defects. Though, in reality everyone is very different and have some similarities and it is the differences that makes life flavorful and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with him that we need to have a change in education. Our educational system should stress a bunch of different things and this means that creativity should not be pushed on the back burner, but this should be stressed. We can not grow without creativity and creativity leads to other great things and ideas.
Listening to Ken Robinson speak was interesting. Two topics he talked about really stood out to me. First, he said that creativity is as important as literacy and should be given the same status. Second, he pointed out the fact that our current educational system was created to meet the needs of an industrial system.
ReplyDeleteIn higher education there has been much talk about the foundations of education, the purpose of education and the implications of both. The current educational system was designed to create workers for the industrial system and our current economic difficulties seem to demonstrate that we are no longer a country in which preparing workers for the factory is our primary objective. Our educational system needs to get creative itself in order to imagine how best to prepare students for a future that places value on different skills or ways of thinking than we currently are.
I find Robinsons thoughts about the place of creativity in the classroom both inspiring and frightening. I love the idea of giving creativity a central roll in education but I dread how that would be implemented in the current educational atmosphere. I have images of classes in creativity where students are expected to meet standards of creativity that they will then be tested on. Students who fail to score at a minimum level of creativity will be assigned to a remedial creativity program. Lets treat literacy with more respect and creativity before we add creativity to the long list of items we test students on.